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NBA FINALS: CLEVELAND VS GOLDEN STATE

June 8, 2017

JR Smith

Cleveland, Ohio: Practice Day

Q. I know you said that tweet last night, you didn't send it. Do you have any idea where it came from?
JR SMITH: I don't. I'm not a technology guy like that. I've been known to do certain things, send some pretty crazy tweets in the past. But obviously I would know better than that, at 12:04, when the game is over at 12:00.

Q. What can you guys do? You played really well last night. What can you do to play that much better to win tomorrow?
JR SMITH: Bottle the energy that we had in the second half and try and sustain it for 48 minutes. Less mistakes. We just left two really good shooters kind of open with K.D. and Klay coming down the stretch. So just got to bottle that up and try to sustain it for the whole game. We got to do a better job of executing coming down the stretch, but that's part of the game.

Q. When you went through such an emotionally draining game last night, physically draining, emotionally draining, how do you kind of get back to the level you need to get to to compete, that quick of a turnaround?
JR SMITH: Oh, it should be easy. It's The Finals. It's not like it's a regular season game or a preseason game. We are down 3-0, but this is what we live for. This is the reason why we picked up ball up when we were kids, to play in the NBA Finals and have a chance to win the championship.

So we just got to come out swinging and expect them to play as well as they do and expect for us to play better.

Q. On the tweet, have you heard from the league office at all about it?
JR SMITH: Why would I hear from the league office?

Q. They have social media guidelines that you can't tweet within so long after the game ends.
JR SMITH: No, I haven't heard from anybody.

Q. Obviously they're a different team with Durant. Your team, are you playing as well as you did, the team, as well as the Cavaliers did last year? Or how have you -- if you just look at the way the Cavs are playing, how do you compare that?
JR SMITH: We're not playing as well as we wanted to or expected to compared to last year. We have got more turnovers, I believe. We have given up more offensive rebounds, I believe, as well.

So we're definitely not playing up to the level we were at. But, again, our bench is pretty much completely different from last year. So we got a few things to work on, but we can't dwell on the past.

Last year was last year; this year is this year. And they got better this year; we believe we got better. It's just a matter of putting it out there, putting our product on the court.

Q. After watching the film of what happened last night, how did that allow you or what changed in terms of how you process what happened?
JR SMITH: We were playing hard. We had great effort. It was just mental lapses. Different times we were supposed to switch out, we didn't switch, or supposed to trap, we didn't trap. And those things can cost you a game, which it did for us. So we just got to be better mentally and just try to work through it.

One thing that shouldn't be talked about for us is effort that we gave, from everybody -- coaches, players, whatever. So we played hard enough, we made enough plays, we just didn't play smart enough.

Q. You take it one game at a time, and there's been a lot of talk about going 16-0 in the Playoffs, and I know us you guys would like to put a dent in that record.
JR SMITH: I would love to put a dent in that record. I mean, I don't really focus on it too much. That's really for them. Whether they get the record or they don't doesn't really -- I mean, it does affect me, but, I mean, congratulations, I guess? I mean, they got a record last year, too. So I don't know what to say.

Q. But you're the one team that can make that happen.
JR SMITH: Yeah, I mean, we can, we have an opportunity to, and we have to put our best basketball out there on the court. So if we bring our A game and play smart enough, I mean, we'll do it.

Q. Do you think that they have gotten a spark since Steve Kerr came back?
JR SMITH: I don't know. Yes and no. I say yes because it's obviously great to have your head coach there, especially going through what he's gone through. So morale, yes, but at the same time they have been playing great basketball the whole post-season and regular season as well. So I wouldn't say it was like a boost of energy, because the way they play, they feel like that anyway, but I'm sure it's different as a person, for sure.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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